Well, slightly older demographic here - I read every Stephen King book I could borrow from the library in high school. My parents had zero idea what I read (latch key kid) and my best friend's parents didn't believe in censorship, so I read all the Christopher Pike novels my best friend read - starting in like 4th grade. I read a lot of dark books. They made me feel less alone in a life that had some dark things happening in it. (I also watched every episode of Sex and the City before my conversion.)
I read a lot of stuff with my kids that I don't mention we've read in our Catholic homeschooling community. (My big kids also watch a lot of stuff with my husband and I that we don't mention either.) Mostly because of shocked reactions like the one at the beginning of this piece. As I look back on my childhood watching and reading a lot of dark stuff, there was often things of value in it - the issue that led me astray was that I consumed it without discussion with a mature adult. So, if my kids want to consume media that I have questions about, we consume it together (within reason).
Intentionality plays such a big role for me. And as a stubborn/rebellious person raising at least one stubborn/rebellious kid, I don't think there's a better way to ruin the rebel's mystic than to accompany the kid in their consumption. My lyric recitations can ruin the cool factor of any song. And vice versa, I don't think there's a better way to fan the flames of rebellion than to ban content.
My path sounds so similar to yours, from King to latch key to keeping things on the DL from the local homeschool community ;)
And you’ve hit on it- I didn’t have a spiritually mature person to discuss these things with. Sure, I’d talk about them with my peers, but none of my friend group was religious at all, so it was just a giant echo chamber. A devout, trusted adult who would have engaged me in discussions about the media I was consuming would have meant the world to me.
This is such a good article not only for my own choices in what I consume but also as a wife and a parent. God does give us the gift of discernment and that’s beautiful. My husband is a huuuuge metal head and I was of those teens reading the dark books (and I might still be lol). It’s okay to learn about other stories, and it’s another to live those stories out. We can’t avoid sin- it’s all around us - it’s how we deal with it that matters. Thank you for what you do!
Until a week or two ago, I didn't even realize you wrote fiction. I loved reading this letter this morning, because it is so exactly the approach I take to my own fiction. We don't leaven the world by talking to the people who are already in our bubble, or by pretending the ugly stuff doesn't exist. Thanks for this. An author friend and I are working on pitching conferences about writing in the crack--writing secular fiction from a Christian world view. When this came through this morning I sent it to her and said: "See? There are more of us out there than we know!"
A big yes to the depressing books of the 2000s. Anyone else go through a Lurlene McDaniel phase?
But more importantly, everything you've written here rings so true to me. Is Crank a hard book to read and expose young adults to? Yes, but it's also one of the most popular checkouts in our school library, especially among reluctant readers. Over and over, I see my students drawn to books becuase they offer something real and true to their experiences, rather than painting an idealized picture of how some adult thinks life should look if you're perfect. (And there's also a solid argument to be made that reading those books helps kids work through tough situations and moral dilemmas in an abstract way, which can be an asset to their own moral formation). I get that it's a tough line to walk, but I also know that there are so many things I learned from reading, because no one in my life was talking about them. And I like to think I'm both a more empathetic person and a passionate reader as an adult becuase I was allowed to explore books that weren't perfect.
Also, I could ramble a lot about book bans and adults who want MG/YA to reflect how they feel as an adult, rather than the lives of the readers it's actually written for. Thank you for this article!
Yes, yes, yes. Ellen Hopkins...oof. That woman accompanied me through so much of high school. And would I hand her to my 4-year-old? No. But would I let my 13-year-old read her and then try to have discussions together? Most likely. Thanks for what you do, Katie!!! Librarians are just so important.
Love everything about this article, Claire! And yes, I do remember reading some pretty intense "issue books" as a teen in the early 2000s. Most of it helped me work through a lot of what I was encountering in my public high school, though I do remember being very upset by a YA novel that described a sexual assault in pretty graphic way -- that's definitely a line I draw a hard no at in my own writing. As Catholic author, I think pretty much all topics are open to us because our main responsibility is to depict humanity and the world as it truly IS. But *how* we go about portraying that deeply fallen and yet glorious humanity is where discernment comes in.
Great article. I often wonder about my discernment in choosing the media/entertainment I consume. I will read almost anything, but if I do get to a sex scene in a book that makes me feel icky, I just kind of skim over it and skip ahead because it doesn’t anything to the plot anyway. Sadly, I find the writing quality in most straight up “Christian” fiction to be very lacking. I really like your point about focusing more about how the characters deal with sin and whether the story overall points to truth and beauty.
I also skip sex scenes, especially if they're hella graphic like I feel like so many are these days. But you're totally right about "Christian" fiction. I'm sorry, but it's just the truth. I'm sure there are some diamonds in the rough but overall, something like Brideshead Revisited or The Lager Queen of Minnesota or Maine are just such a higher quality of writing but still have these incredibly beautiful Christian themes!
Thanks for this. I found this article more helpful than Tom Hoopes' articles on media mistakes or Grace Bellon's article on using media through the eyes of faith on the Blessed Is She website. And even over Father Mike Schmitt's article on media and the law of exposure. Don't get me wrong: I love Father Mike to bits and I really don't like criticizing clergy. However, as a Catholic with scrupulosity/OCD tendencies and high-functioning autism, the amount of detail all three go into is not helpful.
I'm already checking my spiritual pulse 50 times a day over trivial things that won't matter in the long run. The last thing I need is to start regularly checking how the media I consume may be leading me to sin in minor ways or being wary of "hubris" constantly winning when modern fictional heroes win the day because they're skilled loners who believe in themselves "too much."
Last summer, I watched Interview with the Vampire, which has a lot of objectionable content from a Catholic standpoint. And guess what came out of watching Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt play vampires in a 1994 vampire flick? The idea to write a clean vampire romance in which my vampires love looking at holy objects, love getting sprinkled with holy water, and consume animal blood instead of human blood out of respect for human life. So because I checked out Tom Cruise playing a vampire, I think the Lord put that idea on my heart. And I even made my male love interest, who is a vampire, look like Tom Cruise's character. Except my vampire love interest has black wavy hair, not blonde. I did that to avoid getting into potential copyright trouble. And my vampires have pointy ears. Anyway, my vampire romance novel is currently in the brainstorming stages.
Hi, I wanted to say thank you for your most recent post on Newman guide colleges and sexual assault.
I went to a small Catholic high school in Atlanta called Holy Spirit where I had a teacher who told us we could either go to a Newman guide school or go to hell. I decided to go to Christendom College in front royal VA as a result. I had to leave due to medical issues about two months in. Looking back, I can see that it was my body reacting to being in an extremist religious environment. After I left, many women came forward via one journalist in town for sexual assault. Several teachers were arrested. The school did nothing. The story got picked up by the Washington post and then stopped altogether. I was not a sexual assault victim, but I experienced other forms of manipulation and inhumane treatment first hand.
I got my literature and music degree from a different college and now I’m at the University of York getting a Master’s in Medieval Literature and Languages. My dissertation is on Women leaders in the Catholic Church 1000-1400s.
If I had had the research I’m doing now at 17, I never would have believed patriarchal “theology” or willingly went into an environment that sickened me to the point of hospitalization.
I am so grateful for your account.
Thank you for holding those responsible accountable and supporting women.
"The question of a book that points towards truth isn’t whether or not there’s sin in the story. It’s how the effects of the sin impact the world around the characters, how the sin is responded to, and where the grace shines through."
Yaass
I find I'm open to almost* everything literary. Love a great thriller, fiction book etc I don’t do romance or LGBTQ fiction for obvious reasons.
Funny story: I often listen to audiobooks. My latest author is Lianne Moriarty (Big Little Lies/Apples Never Fall). They have sex scenes. Nothing crazy or graphic. Tell me why anytime my husband walks into the kitchen, that* is the scene being read aloud 😅 I've had to convince him on multiple occasions, "No, I'm not listening to 50 Shades" 🤦🏾♀️
Hi Claire. I don’t have kids but I recently bought and read your first two books and I’m looking forward to the new one. When I read your post about trying to help kids make sense of the world through books, I remembered being in elementary school and absolutely terrified that my parents would divorce every time they would fight. My parents never got close to a divorce! They’ve been married over forty years. But I had this idea that any conflict was terrifying, and I didn’t understand that fighting is a normal part of relationships and people who love each other won’t always agree and have to work it out sometimes with heated words. Some food for thought as you create your worlds.
I'm curious about what discerning questions you may think or boundaries of sorts you have when it comes to fantasy books, such as wizards, fairies, etc.
Huge "Amen" to the goody-two-shoes suburban tween reading really dark books. Laurie Halse Anderson, Ellen Hopkins, and books about the Irish Potato Famine were my all-time faves in the 2000's. Loved this article!
This is very timely for me as a new fiction author who is currently discerning if something has crossed a line. My first book will be published in January with a Catholic publisher specializing in Theology of the Body fiction (which obviously has the potential to contain uncomfortable topics!). I'm trying to decide if the sexual temptation presented to a character goes too far in my second and subsequent books - I want to show true struggle with sin without actually causing scandal (although I'm sure some readers are more sensitive than others, too). I've heard the advice of "sex scenes happen off-camera, which is good, but what about the temptation leading up to that? Where is the line, how much is too much? I've also fallen into writing a story about a crack addict and a prostitute, and realistically, that's ugly. I will need a lot of time to discern what changes it needs if it is actually too depraved as is. But I believe God is in every story, even if the characters don't acknowledge him - but I want an author to leave hope for the characters' redemption and to show flickers of truth that are coming through when the sinful actions don't actually get them the happiness they seek.
Thank you for this article and its honesty in discussing this topic!
This was so spot on! I read the Flowers in the Attic series by VC Andrews in middle school. Not literary classics, but definitely eye-opening. My kids love to read and we openly discuss their questions about content. I'd much rather have them feel open to ask me about the tricky stuff then have them wallow through these tough times alone.
Well, slightly older demographic here - I read every Stephen King book I could borrow from the library in high school. My parents had zero idea what I read (latch key kid) and my best friend's parents didn't believe in censorship, so I read all the Christopher Pike novels my best friend read - starting in like 4th grade. I read a lot of dark books. They made me feel less alone in a life that had some dark things happening in it. (I also watched every episode of Sex and the City before my conversion.)
I read a lot of stuff with my kids that I don't mention we've read in our Catholic homeschooling community. (My big kids also watch a lot of stuff with my husband and I that we don't mention either.) Mostly because of shocked reactions like the one at the beginning of this piece. As I look back on my childhood watching and reading a lot of dark stuff, there was often things of value in it - the issue that led me astray was that I consumed it without discussion with a mature adult. So, if my kids want to consume media that I have questions about, we consume it together (within reason).
Intentionality plays such a big role for me. And as a stubborn/rebellious person raising at least one stubborn/rebellious kid, I don't think there's a better way to ruin the rebel's mystic than to accompany the kid in their consumption. My lyric recitations can ruin the cool factor of any song. And vice versa, I don't think there's a better way to fan the flames of rebellion than to ban content.
My path sounds so similar to yours, from King to latch key to keeping things on the DL from the local homeschool community ;)
And you’ve hit on it- I didn’t have a spiritually mature person to discuss these things with. Sure, I’d talk about them with my peers, but none of my friend group was religious at all, so it was just a giant echo chamber. A devout, trusted adult who would have engaged me in discussions about the media I was consuming would have meant the world to me.
Exactly!
This is such a good article not only for my own choices in what I consume but also as a wife and a parent. God does give us the gift of discernment and that’s beautiful. My husband is a huuuuge metal head and I was of those teens reading the dark books (and I might still be lol). It’s okay to learn about other stories, and it’s another to live those stories out. We can’t avoid sin- it’s all around us - it’s how we deal with it that matters. Thank you for what you do!
Until a week or two ago, I didn't even realize you wrote fiction. I loved reading this letter this morning, because it is so exactly the approach I take to my own fiction. We don't leaven the world by talking to the people who are already in our bubble, or by pretending the ugly stuff doesn't exist. Thanks for this. An author friend and I are working on pitching conferences about writing in the crack--writing secular fiction from a Christian world view. When this came through this morning I sent it to her and said: "See? There are more of us out there than we know!"
I love that idea of "writing in the crack"! And it's true -- there are more of us out there who fall into this space (I'm a fiction author too).
We should look each other up and follow along! :)
Yessss! Would love that! "Writing in the crack" is such a cool way to phrase it.
A big yes to the depressing books of the 2000s. Anyone else go through a Lurlene McDaniel phase?
But more importantly, everything you've written here rings so true to me. Is Crank a hard book to read and expose young adults to? Yes, but it's also one of the most popular checkouts in our school library, especially among reluctant readers. Over and over, I see my students drawn to books becuase they offer something real and true to their experiences, rather than painting an idealized picture of how some adult thinks life should look if you're perfect. (And there's also a solid argument to be made that reading those books helps kids work through tough situations and moral dilemmas in an abstract way, which can be an asset to their own moral formation). I get that it's a tough line to walk, but I also know that there are so many things I learned from reading, because no one in my life was talking about them. And I like to think I'm both a more empathetic person and a passionate reader as an adult becuase I was allowed to explore books that weren't perfect.
Also, I could ramble a lot about book bans and adults who want MG/YA to reflect how they feel as an adult, rather than the lives of the readers it's actually written for. Thank you for this article!
Yes, yes, yes. Ellen Hopkins...oof. That woman accompanied me through so much of high school. And would I hand her to my 4-year-old? No. But would I let my 13-year-old read her and then try to have discussions together? Most likely. Thanks for what you do, Katie!!! Librarians are just so important.
Love everything about this article, Claire! And yes, I do remember reading some pretty intense "issue books" as a teen in the early 2000s. Most of it helped me work through a lot of what I was encountering in my public high school, though I do remember being very upset by a YA novel that described a sexual assault in pretty graphic way -- that's definitely a line I draw a hard no at in my own writing. As Catholic author, I think pretty much all topics are open to us because our main responsibility is to depict humanity and the world as it truly IS. But *how* we go about portraying that deeply fallen and yet glorious humanity is where discernment comes in.
Yes, to depict humanity in a TRUE way. Sin *and* grace. You are one of the writers doing it so well, friend!
Great article. I often wonder about my discernment in choosing the media/entertainment I consume. I will read almost anything, but if I do get to a sex scene in a book that makes me feel icky, I just kind of skim over it and skip ahead because it doesn’t anything to the plot anyway. Sadly, I find the writing quality in most straight up “Christian” fiction to be very lacking. I really like your point about focusing more about how the characters deal with sin and whether the story overall points to truth and beauty.
I also skip sex scenes, especially if they're hella graphic like I feel like so many are these days. But you're totally right about "Christian" fiction. I'm sorry, but it's just the truth. I'm sure there are some diamonds in the rough but overall, something like Brideshead Revisited or The Lager Queen of Minnesota or Maine are just such a higher quality of writing but still have these incredibly beautiful Christian themes!
I skip all sex scenes... and lately I've been putting books down altogether because they're just gross in the way they refer to the body.
Thanks for this. I found this article more helpful than Tom Hoopes' articles on media mistakes or Grace Bellon's article on using media through the eyes of faith on the Blessed Is She website. And even over Father Mike Schmitt's article on media and the law of exposure. Don't get me wrong: I love Father Mike to bits and I really don't like criticizing clergy. However, as a Catholic with scrupulosity/OCD tendencies and high-functioning autism, the amount of detail all three go into is not helpful.
I'm already checking my spiritual pulse 50 times a day over trivial things that won't matter in the long run. The last thing I need is to start regularly checking how the media I consume may be leading me to sin in minor ways or being wary of "hubris" constantly winning when modern fictional heroes win the day because they're skilled loners who believe in themselves "too much."
Last summer, I watched Interview with the Vampire, which has a lot of objectionable content from a Catholic standpoint. And guess what came out of watching Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt play vampires in a 1994 vampire flick? The idea to write a clean vampire romance in which my vampires love looking at holy objects, love getting sprinkled with holy water, and consume animal blood instead of human blood out of respect for human life. So because I checked out Tom Cruise playing a vampire, I think the Lord put that idea on my heart. And I even made my male love interest, who is a vampire, look like Tom Cruise's character. Except my vampire love interest has black wavy hair, not blonde. I did that to avoid getting into potential copyright trouble. And my vampires have pointy ears. Anyway, my vampire romance novel is currently in the brainstorming stages.
Hi, I wanted to say thank you for your most recent post on Newman guide colleges and sexual assault.
I went to a small Catholic high school in Atlanta called Holy Spirit where I had a teacher who told us we could either go to a Newman guide school or go to hell. I decided to go to Christendom College in front royal VA as a result. I had to leave due to medical issues about two months in. Looking back, I can see that it was my body reacting to being in an extremist religious environment. After I left, many women came forward via one journalist in town for sexual assault. Several teachers were arrested. The school did nothing. The story got picked up by the Washington post and then stopped altogether. I was not a sexual assault victim, but I experienced other forms of manipulation and inhumane treatment first hand.
I got my literature and music degree from a different college and now I’m at the University of York getting a Master’s in Medieval Literature and Languages. My dissertation is on Women leaders in the Catholic Church 1000-1400s.
If I had had the research I’m doing now at 17, I never would have believed patriarchal “theology” or willingly went into an environment that sickened me to the point of hospitalization.
I am so grateful for your account.
Thank you for holding those responsible accountable and supporting women.
"The question of a book that points towards truth isn’t whether or not there’s sin in the story. It’s how the effects of the sin impact the world around the characters, how the sin is responded to, and where the grace shines through."
Yaass
I find I'm open to almost* everything literary. Love a great thriller, fiction book etc I don’t do romance or LGBTQ fiction for obvious reasons.
Funny story: I often listen to audiobooks. My latest author is Lianne Moriarty (Big Little Lies/Apples Never Fall). They have sex scenes. Nothing crazy or graphic. Tell me why anytime my husband walks into the kitchen, that* is the scene being read aloud 😅 I've had to convince him on multiple occasions, "No, I'm not listening to 50 Shades" 🤦🏾♀️
My greater discernement is in TV.
Hi Claire. I don’t have kids but I recently bought and read your first two books and I’m looking forward to the new one. When I read your post about trying to help kids make sense of the world through books, I remembered being in elementary school and absolutely terrified that my parents would divorce every time they would fight. My parents never got close to a divorce! They’ve been married over forty years. But I had this idea that any conflict was terrifying, and I didn’t understand that fighting is a normal part of relationships and people who love each other won’t always agree and have to work it out sometimes with heated words. Some food for thought as you create your worlds.
I'm curious about what discerning questions you may think or boundaries of sorts you have when it comes to fantasy books, such as wizards, fairies, etc.
Huge "Amen" to the goody-two-shoes suburban tween reading really dark books. Laurie Halse Anderson, Ellen Hopkins, and books about the Irish Potato Famine were my all-time faves in the 2000's. Loved this article!
This is very timely for me as a new fiction author who is currently discerning if something has crossed a line. My first book will be published in January with a Catholic publisher specializing in Theology of the Body fiction (which obviously has the potential to contain uncomfortable topics!). I'm trying to decide if the sexual temptation presented to a character goes too far in my second and subsequent books - I want to show true struggle with sin without actually causing scandal (although I'm sure some readers are more sensitive than others, too). I've heard the advice of "sex scenes happen off-camera, which is good, but what about the temptation leading up to that? Where is the line, how much is too much? I've also fallen into writing a story about a crack addict and a prostitute, and realistically, that's ugly. I will need a lot of time to discern what changes it needs if it is actually too depraved as is. But I believe God is in every story, even if the characters don't acknowledge him - but I want an author to leave hope for the characters' redemption and to show flickers of truth that are coming through when the sinful actions don't actually get them the happiness they seek.
Thank you for this article and its honesty in discussing this topic!
This was so spot on! I read the Flowers in the Attic series by VC Andrews in middle school. Not literary classics, but definitely eye-opening. My kids love to read and we openly discuss their questions about content. I'd much rather have them feel open to ask me about the tricky stuff then have them wallow through these tough times alone.